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The Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA) Announces its Expanded Board of Directors

The Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA) is pleased to announce it has expanded its Board of Directors to fifteen members.  The expanded Board of Directors is as follows:

President – Terry Hawkins

Mr. Hawkins began his professional career as Director for Instructional Communications for the University of Louisville.  He then moved into the global renewable energy field for a number of years as President of McDonnell Douglas Energy Systems.  Leaving energy for a private law practice, he represented a number of commercial clients including General Electric.  That representation grew into a management assignment as General Manager of Warranty Management for GE Consumer and Industrial.  When that business was sold to Assurant Solutions, Mr. Hawkins accepted a position with Assurant as Director for Extended Warranty.  In mid-2010, he opened a private law practice and provides consulting services in the extended warranty and specialty insurance business.

He has a degree in General Science from Indiana University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville.  Mr. Hawkins is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association and is licensed to practice law in Kentucky.

Vice President – Jimmy Bynum

Mr. Bynum has served as Cat Insurance’s Business Development Manager since 2009, where his primary responsibility has been to develop and implement initiatives that drive growth in extended warranty for new, used and rebuilt Cat machines.  From 2006 to 2009, Jimmy was deployed to Singapore where he served as Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region, successfully establishing Caterpillar’s Extended Warranty Program in China and Southeast Asia.  He was initially hired into a leadership position in the Cat Insurance Claims area, and has since had numerous other responsibilities, including oversight of the Sales & Marketing unit.  He has his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi.

Secretary – Paul Wojcicki

Paul Wojcicki, a shareholder of the Chicago-based law firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney, Ltd., leads the firm’s warranty and appellate sub-groups. Since 1990, Paul has defended over 700 consumer and commercial warranty actions in trial and appellate courts throughout the country. Paul also counsels companies on warranty and extended warranty management, administration, and regulatory compliance issues.  In addition to his role on the GWSCA Board, Paul serves on the organization’s training committee, manages and writes for www.drivingvalue.com, and warranty and service contract blog, and regularly writes and speaks on warranty and service contract topics before industry groups, including the Warranty Chain Management Conference (WCM), Auto Industry Action Group (AIAG), the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Paul has organized and moderated conferences and seminars on warranty and other products liability-related topics.  Paul received his undergraduate degree in English at Columbia University in New York and his law degree at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.

Treasurer – Greg Spraker

Greg is a charter member of GWSCA (formally known as IWCM.Org) and has been the Treasurer since inception.  Greg is a National Account Director at SAS Institute Inc.  Greg has over 20 years’ experience in Engineering, Operations and Sales with specific experience in the following industries: Telecommunications, Energy, Aerospace, Industrial Controls, Medical Devices, Consumer Goods and the Construction/Engineering Industry. He consults with corporations that are seeking to optimize their use of technology to drive automation and efficiency into their business processes. He is a Certified Reliability Engineer, a past member of the Society for Professional Engineers of Virginia and holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Director – Mark Alexander

Mark Alexander is the Manager of Warranty Administration and Service Development for John Deere Construction & Forestry, a position he’s held since 2007.  His responsibilities include managing C&F’s global warranty policies and procedures, extended warranty offerings, and product improvement programs.   Since 2012 he has also been responsible for developing dealer service solutions such as remote machine diagnostics and prognostics.  Previous responsibilities include management roles in the areas of Reliability Analysis, Manufacturing Operations, and Supply Management.   Mark’s formal education includes a MBA from the University of Iowa, a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University.

Director – Michael Bailey

Mr. Bailey is the President of Superior Warranty Consulting Services and has worked in the Extended Service Contract industry for over 25 years supporting Manufacturers, Retailers, TPAs, Insurers, Technology Providers and Marketing Groups.  Superior Warranty provides hands on industry experience to companies who are developing or improving ESC programs in the Major Appliance, CE, Mobility, HVAC, Automotive, Furniture and Home Warranty industries.

Director – Josh Becker

Josh Becker is currently a Client Director with SAS Institute, Inc., focused primarily on developing and delivering strategies to advance analytical maturity within SAS’s industrial manufacturing account.  Prior to this current role, Josh was Principal Solutions Architect & Industry Consultant in the Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Practice, specializing in Quality and After-Market Service solutions.  His primary responsibilities included the design and deployment of analytical solutions that help manufacturers solve their supply chain business problems, specializing in the areas of production optimization, product quality, asset maintenance and after-market service.  He continues to provide domain leadership for all quality, reliability, and warranty related solutions as well as leading strategic assessments, business case development and proof of value activities.

Prior to joining SAS, Josh was the Manager of Reliability Engineering for Sub-Zero Wolf Inc. for eleven years.  His core responsibilities included reliability improvement, reliability assurance, and statistical analysis of warranty and call center data.  He developed several corporate reporting tools designed to disseminate reliability data throughout the organization and empower employees to make reliability conscious decisions from the shop floor the boardroom.  He was also the system architect of the organization’s first warranty analysis and service incidence rate tracking system.  He oversaw a large scale implementation of SAS Warranty Analysis and SAS Enterprise Miner, as well as major version upgrade to that system during his tenure.  He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, an MBA in Technology Management.  In addition, Josh is a Certified Reliability Engineer through the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and an active board member of the Global Warranty and Service Contract Association (GWSCA).

Director – Nematollah Bidokhti

Nematollah Bidokhti is a Research Specialist with the civil engineering department in University of Connecticut and a staff engineer with Cisco Systems where he leads the Design for Reliability (DFR) program. He has architected Cisco hardware and software DFR methodology and is responsible for the DFR strategy and roadmap. He leads various DFR initiatives in areas of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), board and systems designs. His background includes hardware and software reliability engineering, system engineering, fault management and system and network modeling. He has contributed and managed reliability activities for military grade, bio-medical, telephony, optical and data products. He holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, an Master’s of Business Administration from University of Phoenix and is a member of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Nematollah has published a number of papers in various conferences such as The Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), The IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), The International Conference on Software Reuse (ICSR), The Association of Recovery Schools (ARS), The Warranty Chain Management Conference (WCM), The North Atlantic Test Workshop (NATW) and The Design Automation Conference (DAC). He is a recipient of Cisco’s Leo Award for innovation.

Director – William Eliason

As a Global Warranty Financial Controller William has been working with Oracle’s Warranty Finance Accounting for about eight years and got a great experience in the subject. William does regular Financial analysis of Oracles Warranty and Service Contract offerings. He has been a presenter at the WCM conference for many years. William were one of the resources that provided the Finance Training Material for IWCM. He did put a lot of effort there and showed that he delivers results.

William holds a BS degree in Business Administration and an MBA degree

Director – Heather Gray

Heather Gray is a partner in Gowlings’ Toronto office, practicing in the Firm’s

Commercial Insurance and Insurance and Professional Liability Groups.

Heather specializes on issues affecting the insurance industry from provincial and

federal regulatory matters and intermediary licensing to product design and

development for insurers, agencies, brokerages, third party administrators and

service contract providers. She also regularly provides coverage advice and litigation

support to insurers and policyholders in a broad range of areas, including

commercial general liability, financial and professional services and directors’ and

officers’ insurance. Heather’s experience with both business and claims issues

enable her to provide unique insight to her insurance industry clients.

Heather has appeared before the Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal

for Ontario and was asked to participate in the 2012 International Competition for

Mediation Advocacy as a panel judge.

Heather regularly presents on a wide range of insurance issues including coverage,

indemnity and insurance requirements in commercial agreements, and the regulatory

landscape affecting the sale of insurance and extended warranty products in

Canada.

Heather was appointed as an Advisory Board Member for the Global Warranty and

Service Contract Association in June 2013.

MEMBERSHIPS

Ontario Bar Association

The Advocates’ Society

Defence Research Institute

Canadian Defence Institute

Canadian Nuclear Law Organization

International Nuclear Law Association (member of Working Group 2 – Nuclear

Liability and Insurance)

Director – Kjell Hammarstrom

Mr Hammarstrom is the Senior Warranty Cost Program Manager at Oracle and is responsible for estimate Warranty Cost for Oracle’s New Hardware Products and is frequently engaged in Warranty Cost reduction programs.

Kjell has spent most of his career in the IT industry and during the last 19 years with Oracle. He had different Management roles in the Support Organizations Global Supply Chain before he was appointed Warranty Cost Program Manager. He has made numerous presentations at Warranty Chain Management Conferences and was one of the co-founder of the Institute of Warranty Chain Management which later was transformed to GWSCA. He studied Logistics Management at Schartau Business School and Business Economics at Stockholm University.

Director – Frank Kozlowski

Frank has worked in the customer service and warranty field for nearly 40 years. The last 33 years have been with the Kohler Co Engine Division Warranty and Customer Service Department.  Have assisted in the design and development of 4 warranty systems with the latest being an Internet based 24/7 live transactional system.  Frank has supported the Warranty Chain Management Conference for many years, and has participated as a subject matter speaker at numerous past conferences.  With many years of warranty experience Frank brings valuable insight to the overall Warranty functions and support of the GWSCA.  

Director – Brent Lehman

Brent began in the insurance industry in 1991 with Royal & Sun Alliance, and during his eight years undertook various roles in the business from property underwriting to business & product development. In 1998 he began a five year term with Caterpillar of Australia where he managed several dealer and customer insurance programs throughout the broader Asia Pacific Region, ranging from physical loss or damage and warranty through to corporate property and casualty programs. Brent joined his current employer – Willis, in 2003 as a Client Manager in the Willis Corporate Team. Since his time with Willis, Brent has been involved in several client relationship and product development roles across multiple global locations, and more recently has taken on general management and people leadership roles encompassing both individual business units and geographic locations.

Director – Kevin Riggs

Kevin Rigg is the Extended Service Business Claim (ESB) & Prior Approval Manager for Ford Motor Company North America.  He has 35 years’ experience with Ford Motor Company working in a variety of field, engineering, marketing and managerial positions.  For over 10 years, he has worked exclusively for ESB in his current role.  Some current responsibilities include ensuring accurate claim adjudication, managing ESB claim centers, business lead for ESB claim system development, assisting with ESB contract and marketing material development, and consulting with other ESB global regions.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Management from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI.  In his recent past he has volunteered for Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, FL.

Director – Susan Sweetman

Ms. Sweetman is Accounts Payable and Warranty Manager at the Gustave A Larson Company. She has been with the company for 10+ years. Susan has been in the Accounts Payable field for 20+ years and in the warranty and service contract field for the last 5 years. She has taken on the challenge of improving the service of the warranty department. Susan recently received her CAPP certification.  In her spare time she likes to read, bike, watch auto racing and spend time with her 3 grandchildren.

About GWSCA

OUR MISSION

GWSCA, founded in 2006 as the Institute of Warranty Chain Management, is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to leading innovation, education and advancement in the fields of warranty and service contract management and administration worldwide. GWSCA provides training, education and access to services and information that facilitate the growth and development of individual professionals as well as offering a unified voice on important issues. GWSCA further serves warranty and service contract organizations by devising and promulgating standards and developing new business optimization tools and solutions. Through these efforts, GWSCA promotes excellence and efficiency.

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